The US Congress’s perennial budget battles rarely result in anything particularly interesting – recent developments include a “long-term” six-year infrastructure funding plan and a piecemeal bipartisan energy strategy – but every once in a while, something big happens. Most recently, ...
As late as the 1870s only 10% of the African Continent was colonized. Less than 30 years later, the “Scramble for Africa” had rendered 90% of the continent under the control of European powers. This race to conquer the continent ...
South Africa’s agriculture industry can breathe a sigh of relief. No, its farming exports will not lose preferential, duty-free access to the US market under the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA)—but for a while, a tense trade dispute with ...
An important aspect of the negotiations at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) was the financing of climate-adaptation projects in less-developed countries. Climate change poses a more severe threat to stability in developing countries, where government resources are scarce ...
There’s something fishy about American politics, and it boils down to this—our political divisions on every issue don’t really fit neatly onto a left-right axis. Something else appears to be at work, and according to various scholars, that something is ...
Conditional cash transfer programs are a common poverty reduction tool used by many governments and nonprofits in their development aid programs. These direct transfers of cash to individuals, are conditional on meeting and adhering to certain criteria, such as enrollment in school. But ...
Population control is one of the least sexy platforms a politician could embrace today. The very term connotes coercive family planning practices like China’s one-child policy, or worse, forced sterilization. And yet, overpopulation contributes to or exacerbates almost all of ...
This piece is the second of Glimpse’s “Regional Check-In Series.” To read about Latin America, click here. To read about Southeast Asia, click here. The former Soviet republics occupying the Caucasus and Central Asia have been out of the limelight this ...
In late November, China announced its first-ever overseas military outpost in the strategic African state of Djibouti. Its purpose, according to the Chinese leadership, is to assist Chinese Navy ships on United Nations antipiracy missions. This comes on the heels ...
Last month, the Mexican Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation decided in a 4-1 vote that growing marijuana for personal consumption is a human right. Four activists – founders of the Mexican Society for Responsible and Tolerant Personal Use ...